For the first time in years, south-eastern customers of Iarnrod Eireann are not the ones complaining most loudly about the rail service.
Frustration over the journey time from Waterford to Dublin - it takes half an hour longer by train than by car - has given way to a sense of relief that the region has emerged relatively unscathed from the current dispute.
Nevertheless, passenger numbers on the Dublin-Waterford route have been "decimated" because of uncertainty about the service, an Iarnrod Eireann spokesman said yesterday.
Instead, customers have been opting to use Bus Eireann and private coaches which have been benefiting from extra business due to the rail dispute.
Mr Ray Kearney, of Bus Eireann in Waterford, says business has increased by about 20 per cent since the dispute began, and on occasion the increase has been even more dramatic.
"Take the 11.30 service to Dublin last Saturday, for example. You might put a second bus on that route normally whereas last Saturday we had to have four.
"People have lost confidence in the train service and they're using the buses even when the trains are running."
On the Dublin-Waterford line, which includes Kilkenny and Carlow, they are running every day but the erratic nature of the service since the dispute began is putting passengers off.
On average, three out of four trains run but on occasion the service drops to 50 per cent, while on other days it's at 100 per cent.
Yesterday was a good day: only one out of the four services each way between Dublin and Waterford was lost, while today all trains will be running.
Yet ticket revenue on the line is down by 35 per cent as customers opt for guaranteed services elsewhere, according to an Iarnrod Eireann spokesman.
As a backbench Government party TD, Mr Brendan Kenneally would expect to hear all about it if the dispute was causing major difficulties. "Members of the public have not been contacting me at all about the strike. I can only surmise from that that it's not impacting on them."
Eireann to change the route of one of its Waterford city services.
"It's affecting elderly people and I have had plenty of people get on to me about that, but not about the rail strike."
With the Dublin-Rosslare service unaffected by the strike, tourism interests say the region is largely escaping the dispute. "We feel quite fortunate in this neck of the woods," said Mr Gary Breen, of the South East Regional Tourism Authority.
Both Kilkenny and Carlow Chambers of Commerce said the dispute had not affected business unduly, although many people commuting to Dublin from Carlow have found the unreliability of the train service to be a major inconvenience.
Tomorrow: Dick Hogan on the impact of the train dispute in Cork and Kerry.